Limit vs. No Limit

[JeanieJ]

<font color="purple">
A few days ago I decided to give Pacific Poker a try. (they have only limit tables). I put 40 bucks into an account they gave me 10 that gives me 50(i'm sure you can add).

After the first day I had 32 left. Was a pretty bad day. The next day I turned my 32 into 200 in 12 hrs. Not too good, but not too bad for the stakes I was playing. I was amazed at how well the limit was working for me, but thought maybe it was just a lucky day. I come back yesterday and Build my stack for 200 to 615 in only 8 hrs of play.

My question is this:

Why does limit hold em' seem to be working for me a lot better than no-limit did? I played NO limit on Poker Stars,UB, and a few others but never seemed to come out overly ahead. I'm doing really well here at Pacific and I have a feeling it's because of the Limit. Should I stick to Limit hold em and make my money that way? I always thought Limit never brought in the money, but I've proven that wrong to myself.

Any Comments would be appreciated. </font>

[flopdanutz]

either your low-limit holdem game is stronger than your no limit game or you hit a nice little run while playing limit.

I would stick to limit for a while until boredom hits and then play the occasional no limit game. Table selection is very important if you plan on earning money.

[JeanieJ]

Day: 4

Still playing at PP... but I've moved up in stakes. Today I played 5/10 dollar tables and no tourneys.
My bankroll was at 555 after the day before...I ended the day with 8 hrs of play and 1060 dollars in the account.

I'm starting to think this isn't a streak? Maybe limit just happens to work for me.

Who knows we'll see. Right now I'm making more than I do in a month at work.

[Dov]

You really can't tell yet. If you want more information on how long you need to play before you can be confident in your trends, look at the probability forum.

This topic and many like it have been beaten to death there.

For now, just realize that you are experiencing normal fluctuations in your bankroll and they could go either way on the same order of magnitude. Be careful.

There is a reason why a bankroll is recommended to be 300BB.

Good Luck.

[bicyclekick]

I played limit for about 10,000 hands and had a winrate of 4.5BB/h.

Now that I'm getting closer to 20,000 it's about 2.

You need to play WAY more hands. It's great you've had that streak, though, congrats.

[fluff]

Since you only have 20 hours worth of data to work with, it's hard to say. What limits were you playing?

Assuming 1-2, your first 12 hours you earned 7 BB/hour, and your next 8 hours you earned 25 BB/hour. If you played 2-4, then it would be 3.5 and 12.5 BB/hour respectively. None of those rates are sustainable long run, so most likely you're experiencing a short run of good cards.

That is not to say that you're not good at limit, but with 20 hours worth of data, you just can't tell.

[JeanieJ]

I actually went into a few tourneys... one 10 dollar one 20 and... I think a different one. That is where I made most of the money. The ppl who seem to play these tourneys ... aren't good at all. I took first in the 20 dollar Tourney. Once I won 240? or so at that tourney I took my money to 3/6 limit table. where I won a few hundred more. I suppose you're right It's really hard to know after a few days. I'll keep playing, if it's working here who am I to leave and give up what I'm winning.

[TheGrifter]

If a large portion of your winnigns was in tournament play this suggests even more strongly that you hit a good run. My advice, ride it out, keep playing 3/6 and low buy in tournaments unless you begin to consistently log losing sessions. Soft low limit games are easy to beat with a tight, aggressive strategy. Play tight because nobody pays attention and will still give you action on your good hands, and play aggressive because the table is full of people who will call you down with inside straight draws and second pair.

[Lucky]

It's difficult to say for sure, but the biggest variable in the equation is probably not your play or NL v Limit, but Pacific Poker.

UB, Stars, and Paradise are POKER sites; Pacific gets a lot of players who "happen in" from the casino. The bottom line is, Pacific games, at all limits are very soft.

By only offering limit and limiting players to one table, however they are able to keep the 2 + 2 sharks disinterested and feeding elsewhere.

If you want to play some NL, play the NL 25 at Party. They are excellent, almost the equivalent of Pacific LL Holdem.

Good Luck.

[cjs]

I agree with lucky - the pacific games are very soft. It may just be as simple as that.